Re: ==+ 16v Digfant II FAQ +== (MBRACKLIFFE)

Okay .. I needed this info - Im getting ready to change out the 8v from my 90 jetta and put in the 16v - This is my first go around with VWs - Im not afraid to tackle the job - but I wonder if it would be easier to ditch the digi and and just do the CIS - Anyone want to try to sell me on the benefits of one versus the other and I am putting it in an automatic tranny car so am I looking at any additional issues.

Re: ==+ 16v Digfant II FAQ +== (veedubinit)

Ok so I am pretty far along in my swap, the only problem I have run into thus far is the exhuast manifold/downpipe. I have my PF 8V dual downpipe, and a mk1 exhuast manifold (didnt check when I bought it) which I know is useless for this swap. Now I thought I could swap it for a mk2 manifold and it would all work, but it now seems that isnt the case either, so is there an option other then getting both the manifold AND downpipe from a passat, cause I don't think I have that sort of cash left over.

Re: ==+ 16v Digfant II FAQ +== (89JettaCoupe)

My friend and I are having fun with this swap to say the least we got it to start the other night finally after discovering the idle switch wasn't closed and it sounded great through the racing downpipe...with no other exhaust. But that isn't the real issue. We are dead certain on the timing on the motor and the distributor, but where the distributor is turned to we can not bolt it in place as can be seen in the picture. The #1 wire is on the top left as looked at from the driver side fender and the fire order is correct. What is the deal. We moved the wires back and forth on the distributor and played with the timing on the distributor but it just wouldn't fire. Suggestions are more than welcome. The swap is on a '91 Cabriolet using BBM fuel rail, digifast 2 chip, g60 injectors and 3 bar fpr. Thanks in advance.

Re: (OhioBenz)

So yea, note to all you peeps driving your digi2 16v in the more northern climates. I am in Nova Scotia and its freakin cold. Lats night when i left work i came straight home and didnt drive long enought o get the fuel rail warmed up. Come this morning she wont start so i am asuming the fuel rail froze some of the fuel enought o muck up the injectors and make it unhappy. so heads up. . if you have a baun brenner or ross machine racing style fuel rail. . .get them warm so they dont screw off on ya.

it would only freeze if you have moisture in your fuel right? Fuel itself (gasoline) doesn't jell like Diesel does so as long as you keep ur tank filled there's less moisture buildup from condensation in the tank - and add "dry gas" with every tank...... It shouldnt be any different from a regular Digi right???

Re: (OhioBenz)

well my tank ran REALLY low because of lack of funds .. . but the normal digi's are plastic .. .. not so prone to freeze gas(or moisture in the gas)
But now that i have had heat lamps on it for like 2 hours i really amy starting to think itsjust my fuel lines. . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Re: (OhioBenz)

Thanks for the compliments on the cabby! My friend and I are stumped on it and I've been working my arse off lately and had no time to fart around with it. So it sits with a distributor that you have to hold in place by hand if you want to start the car...which then proceeds to stall after a couple of seconds. The joys of motor swaps Looking forward to seeing your pics and anyone elses posts on this snafu.

Re: (BOOFWAH)

K, here's a pic of the distributor on my 1.8-16v after I rebuilt the engine.... It was a restore and a lot of parts were missing when i started it - one beingthe distributor. I had a heck of a time getting it running even though I had the timing set "spot-on" with all the marks right on and the rotor at #1 - until my buddy Dave Huff asked me to "humor him" and put the bolts in the current position - it fired right up!!
for a bigger pic: http://www.hotdub.com/pictures...N.JPG
some pix of the 89 GLI project: http://www.hotdub.com/pictures...um=17
Hope all this helps - this GLI is going to become Digi-2 in the spring!

Re: (OhioBenz)

The GLI looks great. You know it doesn't help too much having to run a scirocco intake manifold. That throttle body is all over the distributor and is such a pain to turn. Your distrib is turned almost to the max on the front bolt. If you look at my pic you can see just the top of the top hole on mine, and plug wire 1 is in the same spot as yours . We'll figure this thing out. We might have to start moving some things around (timing marks) to find the sweet spot that bolts the distributor in place. Thanks for posting the pics and the GLI looks great.

Re: (BOOFWAH)

the irony is that the distributor only goes in one way... and everything else only lines up only one way too! (unless its off LOL) There's no real tuning like with an 8v distributor where you can move the drive gear a tooth.
On the bottom of this linked page and the first couple pix on the next page are how the rest of the timing is set on that GLI: http://www.hotdub.com/pictures...bum=2
The 90 GLI we did for my middle son is a lot nicer yet

Re: (Jetta90WB)

if yours is a 89.5+ Jetta or a 90+ Golf, it has CE-2 electrics so Digi-2 would be a plug-n-play. If its an earlier year then it becomes a little more complicated to get all the gauges & tach to work from what I've read. The 16v Digi-1 FAQ has a schematic for power connections for a Digi-1 so I imagine that it wouldnt be any different for a Digi-2.
Otherwise - its prob best to yank the dash - swap a CE-2 harness, fusebox & cluster in along with an engine harness out of any digifant 8v. It all fits right in pretty much. I did that to an A1 so I could go Digi-1.

Re: (Jetta90WB)

i used the A2 dash harness, cut & spliced the old A1 connectors in so I could use the headlight switch, HVAC, defrost & whatever wasn't part of the cluster or turn stalks.
I swapped on the A2 CE-2 turn stalks w/ MFA etc out of a GTI so it had the rear wiper control. It wasn't that hard to swap but the mounting of the aluminum housing onto the column requires welding of the tab in a new location. I got pix of that part in the HotDub gallery.
Then its a matter of splicing the rear lights and front lights/horn into the fusebox - use CE-2 connectors and splice the wires. The main diff is that CE-2 has separate lighting circuits for left/right where the A1 didnt if i recall.
Swapping the CE-2 cluster in is also fairly easy - mine turned out looking completely stock - (which is what i wanted) except for the 140mph/7k tach setup. I have some pix of that part too.
The dash harness/cluster/engine-ECU harness takes care of 90% of what is different - its only lighting and HVAC left over....

Hmm, it sounds to be complicated.
So do you think I should switch all CE-2 stuff from the doner to the MK1, instead of using my 87 16v cluster and what not?
Also how well dose the MK2 cluster fit into the MK1 cluster hole?

i have few questions:
1- which of the two knock sensors are you using ?
2- for the cluster temperature gauge , can i cut the 8v connector , split the wires , one to the sensor and the ground , to a ground ..
3- i kept the 8v stock exhaust, will this be a problem ?
Actually i am running the car with the 16v digi-2 , but still having some weird troubles, when i start the car in the morning at -15ÂºC , it runs fine and its pretty fast , after 2-3 mins , the car become slower , very slower ... this might be a knock sensor problem ???
Need help!

Re: (glaciuz)

i have few questions:
1- which of the two knock sensors are you using ?

The one at the front of the block is stock location for pre 2.0-16v (left standing in front of the car)

Quote, originally posted by glaciuz &raquo;

2- for the cluster temperature gauge , can i cut the 8v connector , split the wires , one to the sensor and the ground , to a ground ..

I'd have to look that up in a Bentley - my A1 swap used a Digi harness. Maybe somebody else can fill in on that?

Quote, originally posted by glaciuz &raquo;

3- i kept the 8v stock exhaust, will this be a problem ?

Its pretty restrictive for a 16v engine - I would upgrade

Quote, originally posted by glaciuz &raquo;

Actually i am running the car with the 16v digi-2 , but still having some weird troubles, when i start the car in the morning at -15ÂºC , it runs fine and its pretty fast , after 2-3 mins , the car become slower , very slower ... this might be a knock sensor problem ???
Need help!

When its cold it gets more fuel until its warmed up - you may want to hook up an AF gauge and see what's happening once its warm.

Re: (MBRACKLIFFE)

well guys i have a 86 with a 1.8 motronic cis and ce2 setup but the car ran like crap and now it doesnt fire up and such had to many problems.. but i want to swap it to something that wont cause problems and was looking in to digi2 and would this take alot of time and money? and so on.....

Re: (pdub72)

Question for MBRACKLIFFE.
I haven't seen where you have talked about the way this setup runs.
So, does it scream? Is it any better than motronic?
My experience with all my digi 2 cars has been a non linear feel in WOT acceleration.
What does digi2 on 16v compare to? Maybe I just missed it above, forgive me if thats the case.

Re: (myke_w)

This setup runs great I have had very few problems with my car since the swap and the price was definitely right. I spent most of my money rebuilding my motor and modding it. By the time I was done with all of that I really had no choice but to use my stock fuel injection. I did not feel that swapping the motronic setup from the passat would have been worth it in the long run.
Digi2 is by no means the most ideal fuel system for the 16v in terms of squeezing every last horsepower from it. In fact its lack of tuneability makes it fairly limited. I have owned my car for a long time and except for a few normal wear and tear issues the digi2 has been more than reliable. One thing to note in terms of my setup is that I meticulously went over all of the electrical connections and componets of the digi2 system during the process of the swap which certainly eliminated most of the little problems that could have arisen.
The only problem I have had to date is an occasional hot start issue which when the car is hot and the outside temperatures are also warm the car will sometimes lose rpm and die upon startup. When I start it again everything is fine. The problem surfaced right as winter was rolling in so I have not had much of a chance to diagnose the problem but I am leaning towards the CSW chip which I purchased off of the tex. I will not be able to confirm this until I swap my old chip back in.
If anyone has ideas on this issue please let me know.
The performance of the setup is great. I can pound on the throttle all day long and the motor pulls strong all the way up until the fuel cuts out around 6800 rpm... my tach may be a little off but you get the idea. I really do not see this lower rev limit being an issue for most of you unless you know for sure your motor can take it. Revving up to 7200 like the stock 16 setup usually does really does not make much sense unless you have a healthy motor or you built it to take this kind of abuse... either way the wear on the motor will be greatly increased if you frequent these high revs. The 16v makes its best power at 5800 rpm anyways.
One thing that I would highly reccomend is considering the tranny that you use. I kept my 8v tranny code AUG and I really do not like the way the gearing matches the motor. 1st gear is basically useless with the extra power of the 16v and 2nd gear is not close ratio compared to third.
Once I hit 3rd the magic starts.
For most of us money is not hanging out of our pockets so our projects tend to progress in steps which is a good thing anyways because it gives you more time to think about what you want to do. Digi2 has allowed me to take care of my motor first and consider my next step. I will most likely go standalone at some point but for now Digi2 is definitely hitting the spot.
To sum this all up.... YES its runs GREAT and YES my car SCREWS.

Re: (MBRACKLIFFE)

mbrackliffe....i have found that since i put in my SNS chip, the idle issues that i kept bugging everyone about magically went away. i cant say 100% the chip did it, but i havent had the problem since. o, and the chip
o...myke....ive done both csw and sns chip reviews. enjoy!

Re: (MBRACKLIFFE)

The performance of the setup is great. I can pound on the throttle all day long and the motor pulls strong all the way up until the fuel cuts out around 6800 rpm... my tach may be a little off but you get the idea. I really do not see this lower rev limit being an issue for most of you unless you know for sure your motor can take it. Revving up to 7200 like the stock 16 setup usually does really does not make much sense unless you have a healthy motor or you built it to take this kind of abuse... either way the wear on the motor will be greatly increased if you frequent these high revs. The 16v makes its best power at 5800 rpm anyways.Modified by MBRACKLIFFE at 6:17 PM 2-19-2005

Mine only revs till 6200 rpm. It used to be an automatic, maybe that's why. But my ECU is from a manual car, and my car now has a manual tranny. Weird. I with I could get mine to go to atleast 6500 rpm. Any ideas boys?

Re: (MBRACKLIFFE)

This setup runs great I have had very few problems with my car since the swap .................
Digi2 is by no means the most ideal fuel system for the 16v in terms of squeezing every last horsepower from it............................
The only problem I have had to date is an occasional hot start issue which when the car is hot and the .........................
If anyone has ideas on this issue please let me know.
The performance of the setup is great. I can pound on the throttle all day long and the motor pulls strong all the ............................
One thing that I would highly reccomend is considering the tranny that you use. I kept my 8v tranny code AUG and........................
For most of us money is not hanging out of our pockets so our projects tend to progress in steps which is a ............................................
To sum this all up.... YES its runs GREAT and YES my car SCREWS.

Modified by MBRACKLIFFE at 6:17 PM 2-19-2005

I coulden't have said that any better, nice. you just described my car lol.
but i spin them in 1,2,3. its hard to get traction with the 175/70/13's im looking at 215 up front and 205 in rear or 215.
im gonna try the Ams chip cause im gonna turbo and P&P n all the good stuff. we'll see how it works out.
As of now "this second" im going outside to tear the car apart and doo some funkey stuff to it. pics will be posted!..............

Re: (gizmotoy1)

I installed the BMW VAM, and the car runs like ****.
DIGI2 16v. I've tried all the VAM spring positions Right now it's at 7 teeth. The car won't idle properly now. It's constantly hunting for idle, betweenm 400 rpm and 1500 rpm. Everytime I slow down to a stop, it starts hunting once or twice.
Cold starts are HORRIBLE!! The car just stalls out. It takes four 10 second cranks to get the car started! THen you haev to floor the car to keep her alive.
I think I may take it out, and break the FAMOUS VAM with my hammer.